The Attorney General KK Venugopal Thursday granted his consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against standup comedian Kunal Kamra for his tweets against the Supreme Court in the wake of bail granted by it to Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV Arnab Goswami.
“I believe it is time people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971”, said Venugopal in his letter to a law student who sought contempt of court proceeding against Kamra.
Attorney General K K Venugopal grants consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against Kunal Kamra for his "contemptious" tweets regarding the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/4Uhz9ZzIt8
— The Leaflet (@TheLeaflet_in) November 12, 2020
Kamra had tweeted that the Supreme Court is the “most supreme joke” in the country, after which he posted a photoshopped photo of the Supreme Court bathed in saffron colour with a flag of the BJP hoisted on it.
This is, the AG said, a gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court. It claims that the Supreme Court is not an independent and impartial institution, but is a court of the ruling party BJP and exists for the BJP’s benefit.
Earlier, the AG had declined to give consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jaganmohan Reddy for his letter to the Chief Justice of India in which he cast aspersions on the integrity of Justice N V Ramana, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court.
He had also turned down requests to initiate contempt against actor Swara Bhaskar and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai for their tweets against the Supreme Court.
The consent of either the Attorney General or the Solicitor General is necessary under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act 1971, for initiating contempt proceedings against a person.
